Halloween Shenanigans

Happy Friday!!!

I cannot even begin to explain how happy I am that I will have two glorious days off...it has been a crazy week at work, I've been doing preparations and briefing material for my manager's upcoming trip to Rome next week for Executive Board meetings, along with trainings (which are awesome, but not when my to-do list is as long as it has been for the past little while), and then mix in some Halloween celebrations...and, well, this weekend couldn't come at a more perfect timing ;)

Workout

I got home yesterday and was going to do a HIIT workout, but I was feeling super antsy and wanted nothing more than to go outside for a run. It just so happened that it stopped raining for about an hours worth of time, so I went for it.

I don't overly recommend running by yourself along dimly-lit areas at night, especially if you are a lady, but the Rideau Canal is surprisingly well-lit in my area, and there is quite a lot of traffic going by in terms of other runners (who are crazy enough to go out running on Halloween night) and bikers, so I felt pretty safe. I made sure to have my music turned down low and only used one earbud juuust in case. I'm a big fan of erring on the side of precaution :)

Halloween Shenanigans

I met up with some friends to go to a keg party at their next-door neighbours place. I was feeling a bit lazy, so I threw on a leopard-print onesie that I found in my closet (I knew it would come in handy at some point) and took some inspiration from Miley Cyrus' fashion sense and put my hair in two buns to act as ears.

Worked out, n'est-ce pas?

I am taking it easy tonight and having dinner with a good friend of mine who is back in town tonight from Kingston, and then Saturday I have Halloween party round II. Because who doesn't like a good excuse to dress up :)

Foodie Penpals Reveal!

Hey ghouls and guys,

Everyone loving life on this fine, gloomy Hallowe'en eve? Hope you all have a stash of Hallowe'en candy on-hand...personally, I have already powered though mine and need to reload soon. Meaning I will wait for tomorrow when the candy hopefully goes on sale ;)

Foodie Penpals

I can't even describe how freaking AMAZING it is to receive a box of goodies in the mail. If you are ven considering if it is a good idea to sign up, DO IT!! It is so fun to share some of you fav snacks with someone else...and then try some of their out :)

My penpal, Valerie from Montreal, really went all out. 

 

It took me a little while to break into, but I was like a little kid on Christmas when I finally opened the package. Seriously, I was pretty much bouncing around for the rest of the night. 

And not only due to a sugar high....

 

She did kind of a Hallowe'en theme for my goodies and included these skeletons - currently the only Hallowe'en decoration hanging in our apartment. Thanks Valerie ;)

These almonds had a delicious french vanilla-flavoured candy coating. I kept them in my snack drawer at work (yes, this is a thing) and they disappeared embarrassingly fast.

She even included some homemade granola - so cute!

 

These tasted like cheesy Doritos. For reals.

Somehow the fact that they are made with rice made me feel better about devouring them...

This tea tastes like those awesome Girl Guides mint-chocolate cookies

These were my all-time fav (my little bro will agree - he asked me where I got them and was disappointed when I told him I got it from a random penpal) 

They were so cute and little, but were a taste explosion of ginger-cookie deliciousness

I'm a huge fan of dark chocolate, and this was a strangely good flavour combination. 

Would def buy this again.

These two little treats were gone in a heartbeat. The coconut cream was the bomb-diggity

So...there you go. Sign up for foodie penpals through the Lean Green Bean. For reals. You won't regret it!!!

Happy Halloween!

Morning friends!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Although, if you walked around my office right now, you would have NO IDEA that it was Halloween. We are all le lame. 

Also, for the record, I didn't even carve this pumpkin. BUT I will be dressing up more than once this week, so that makes up for it...amiright?!

Breakfast

I was running late (as per usual) this morning, so I threw together a smoothie to brighten the gloomy morning:

Almond milk
Dates
Hemp protein powder
Ground flax seed
Raspberries

It was yummy and satisfying, and only took me about 2 minutes to prepare. Perfection ;)

Dinner

As I mentioned yesterday, I went for a power yoga date with a friend of mine at Rama Lotus last night. I was a bit nervous that it would be too much considering my ART physio appointment the night before, but it was exactly what I needed - some strengthening poses and a heck of a lot of stretching in a heated room.

HOWEVER I need to be real with you all. I was totally in the mood to have some good zen time, focus on my breathing and whatnot, and was in a good frame of mind when the class started, but then this guy - a very burly, clearly gym-going, iron-pumping man - barges (yes, BARGES) into the room late and plops his stuff down beside me. I don't usually have beef with people who quietly and calmly come in the room late, but this guy proceeded to be the biggest distraction OF MY LIFE the entire class. And, I think its fair to say, kind of ruined the whole experience for me. He was the type of person who would just do his own thing, not follow the sequence, and was the most jittery person of all time - I couldn't help but notice this since I was constantly seeing him bob in and out of poses (you are meant to hold a pose, and not bob in-and-out of it like a frigging energizer bunny). Case in point - during a flow from high plank to chaturanga to upward dog, he would make sure to get in about a dozen pushups in between.

Argh.

I realize this is really harsh, and usually I don't have any judgments of what other people are doing during a yoga class, but it starts to be my issue when your fidgety-ness affects my experience in the class. How am I supposed to focus on being present and breathing when there is a HUGE man bouncing all over his mat right beside me for an hour and a half?! Seriously, I ask you.

Anyway, we decided to go for Vietnamese pho afterwards and discuss the fact that if we were the owners of the studio, that man would DEF be on our black list.

Because pho makes everything better. 

I will be back later this afternoon with a post about a surprise that I got in the mail...veeeery scaaaary (but not really, mostly just delicious)

Have a great afternoon!